CARES Act forbids Education Department garnishment of wages during the
pandemic
A home health aide who
earns just under $13 per hour is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday
against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose department has continued
garnishing the wages of hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers in the
midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The CARES Act, which
was signed into law in late March, prohibits the Education Department from seizing
the wages and tax refunds of student loan borrowers who have defaulted on their
loans.
But Elizabeth Barber
of Rochester, New York, says the Trump administration has
nonetheless continued to take 12% of her paychecks since the legislation
passed—garnishing $70 from her check as recently as last week—adding to the
financial strain which forced her to default on $10,000 in federal loans in
December.
Barber's hours have also been reduced by 10 to 15 hours per week since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Barber's hours have also been reduced by 10 to 15 hours per week since the coronavirus pandemic began.
"I am so worried
about how I will get through this," Barber said in a statement.
"I have no money in the bank. I need every dollar I earn at work to survive each day, but my hours have been cut because of the virus. I don't understand why the government keeps taking my money away after it passed a law that says they will stop."
"I have no money in the bank. I need every dollar I earn at work to survive each day, but my hours have been cut because of the virus. I don't understand why the government keeps taking my money away after it passed a law that says they will stop."
The lawsuit was filed late Thursday, with legal advocacy group Student Defense and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) representing Barber and about 285,000 other Americans whose wages have been garnished in the past six weeks.
The CARES Act gave
relief to borrowers from wage garnishment until Sept. 30. But across the
country, employers including Barber's have not yet been formally advised by the
Trump administration to stop withholding as much as 15% of employees' paychecks
and sending the garnished wages to the government.
The Education
Department claims the borrowers will be refunded the garnished wages if they
were collected after March 13, but has offered no information about when they
will see those refunds.
The lawsuit
"captures a new low" in DeVos's leadership, tweeted Student Defense
on Friday.
"Right now,
low-wage workers hit hardest by the economic impact of the pandemic need their
paychecks to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads," said Persis Yu, director of the NCLC's
Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.
"By continuing to use its harsh collection tools during this public health and economic crisis, the Department of Education is placing the health, safety, and well-being of vulnerable student loan borrowers in peril."
"By continuing to use its harsh collection tools during this public health and economic crisis, the Department of Education is placing the health, safety, and well-being of vulnerable student loan borrowers in peril."
In a letter to DeVos sent on April 16,
Democratic lawmakers including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) demanded information about
the wage garnishment which has persisted despite being illegal under the CARES
Act and called the secretary's failure to stop the practice
"unconscionable."
"The Trump
administration is taking money from borrowers who are living on the edge of
poverty, in the middle of a pandemic, and in violation of the law," said Seth Frotman, executive director of
the Student Borrower Protection Center, which is supporting the lawsuit.
"This lawsuit shines light on how she has been operating a student debt collection machine that is accountable to no one—and it must be stopped."
"This lawsuit shines light on how she has been operating a student debt collection machine that is accountable to no one—and it must be stopped."